Cell companies to be fined if network quality drops
Cellphone companies will now be fined if the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) finds that their network quality has dropped.
In a statement on Friday, 24 July 2009, Icasa said the End-User and Subscriber Service Charter Regulations 2009 would come into operation within 30 days from the date of publication in the Government Gazette.
"It is envisaged that these regulations will be published in the Government Gazette by midday today [Friday]," Icasa said.
According to the regulations, cellphone companies have to ensure that they achieve an average of 95% network service availability, over a period of six months.
In addition, the percentage of connectivity failure rate must not exceed an average of 3% of all connections over a period of six months.
Icasa said regulations demanded that cellphone companies had to maintain an average of a 90% fault clearance rate for all faults reported within three days.
It added that cellphone companies should, within seven days upon receipt of a request, notify and provide full reasons to qualifying service applicants where they were unable to provide service within the period.
Icasa said cellphone companies had to prepare and submit to it six-monthly reports on the standards as prescribed.
Source: Sapa
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